August 08, 2013

Romo says players, like media, can jump to conclusions from one preseason game; he is looking for rhythm, execution

In the preseason opener without Tony Romo, the Cowboys ran more
than they passed. Romo, who last year threw for the 10th most attempts in NFL
history (648), said that is fine with him.

“If you run the ball well, we’re going to keep calling the
runs,” he said. “We need to run the ball better this year just in general. To
me, that’s an important aspect of what we’re trying to do, and we need to do
that.”

Friday's game against Oakland will be Romo's first chance at live action since he had surgery to remove a cyst from his back. And it will be his first chance to work under new playcaller Bill Callahan.

But Romo cautioned against reading too much into one
preseason game, whether it was last week’s or this week’s.

“I think sometimes we’ll just jump to too many conclusions –
us as well as you guys – based on it,” he said. “ ‘We’re going to be good,
you’re not going to be that good.’ More than anything you just want to have
good execution. You want to be able to do things. You’re not game planning per
se and having the stuff that you’re really going to attack certain coverages
and certain teams a certain way. So you get a little vanilla with what you may
call. “You’d like to get into a rhythm, but I just think we need to go out
there and execute right way and do things that we feel good about as far as
doing our assignments right and getting through stuff quickly and just not
having any mental errors.

“Whether you scored the touchdown or field goal, we’re going
to look at it and dissect it and we’re going to feel the same way a lot people
are. But we just need it as an improvement factor right now.”